Historic Nazarene Messenger now online

The Nazarene Archives staff announced The Nazarene Messenger is now online for the years 1898 through 1908. While there is only a single issue for 1898, nearly all volumes are complete for the following years. Approximately two more years of TheMessenger will be online by the end of the summer.

The paper was a weekly for most of its life, and each issue downloads as a PDF file that is searchable for people, places, theological subjects, schools, and many other topics.

“We express our appreciation to Jeff Beam, Information Technology director for the Global Ministry Center, who led the GMC team in selecting a high-quality planetary scanner and to staff working in the Business Center, who began scanning TheNazarene Messenger at the beginning of summer 2016 and continued improving the scans over the course of this past winter and spring,” said Stan Ingersol, Nazarene archivist.

The Nazarene Messenger was founded by Phineas Bresee, who remained its senior editor throughout its journey. It was published in Los Angeles by the Nazarene Publishing Company under the management of C. J. Kinne, later founding manager of Nazarene Publishing House of Kansas City. The assistant (managing) editor was Robert Pierce, a native of Liverpool, England. Prior to entering the ministry, Pierce had risen to a series of foremanships in the New York City printing industry, including at The New York Observer and at the publishing house of Funk & Wagnall, where he supervised the American printing of Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Nazarene Messenger ceased publication near the end of 1911 when the assets of the Nazarene Publishing Company were merged with those of the Pentecostal Advocate Company of Greenville, Texas, and used to create the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City. At that time, The Nazarene Messenger and The Pentecostal Advocate were superseded by a new periodical that premiered in April 1912 called Herald of Holiness.

About Us

The Church of the Nazarene is a Protestant Christian church in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. Organized in 1908, the denomination is now home to about 2.5 million members worshipping in more than 29,000 local congregations in 162 world areas.